following a lazy recipe when you're actually lazy
i've seen a bunch of "lazy meal" recipes (not on this site, just in general) that start with "chop two medium onions", "chop 4 medium carrots" and/or "mince/crush 2 cloves of garlic and 2 inches of ginger"
and these people's 'lazy' clearly means something different from my 'lazy', so i wanted to share how i make lazy meals:
Start with frozen chopped onions from the frozen section of the grocery store, looks something like this:
they are usually only slightly more expensive than buying whole unions if at all (at my grocery store, they are, pound-for-pound the same price as fresh)
fry it in oil or butter for a few minutes (like 5 minutes), then add frozen chopped carrots, something like this:
(these are more expensive than fresh carrots, (per weight, almost 2x the price at my grocery store compared to whole fresh carrots) but chopping carrots is so much work, and also the whole fresh carrots are sold in 2lb bags, which is more than i'd usually use in a week)
then fry it all together for about 10-15 more minutes
(it takes longer to cook because they are frozen, but i still consider this "lazier" because you don't have to chop. if you don't like it taking longer, you can also microwave the frozen onions and carrots before cooking to defrost quickly (for example microwave the carrots while the onions are cooking); that's still easier than chopping)
then, once the onions are softened and yellow, add the relevant amount of ginger-garlic paste, something like this
that you can get from a south asian grocery store, or from the international aisle of a larger grocery store with more options
(at my grocery store this is also cheaper ounce-for-ounce than fresh ginger and garlic)
(store it in the fridge after opening it, it can last for months)
sometimes i also like to have separate garlic paste and ginger paste in case of recipes that only call for one of them,
but almost all recipes i follow use both, and even when it only calls for one, it usually still tastes good if you use both anyway, so usually i don't bother having the separate ones
(disclaimer: store-bought ginger garlic paste tends to have some vinegar for preservation. in pretty much all recipes i use, i feel like it doesn't matter (it's not enough to affect the taste of the end product), but if you're worried, you can blend together ginger and garlic in a blender to make your own)
now proceed with the "lazy meal" recipe that you're trying to follow, you've just saved yourself the steps of
chop onions (which irritates your eyes)
chop carrots (a lot of work and hard on the knives)
mince/crush ginger and garlic (a lot of work and makes your hands smell like ginger and garlic)
happy lazy cooking
